CHAIR UPCYCLE - DRIFTWOOD PAINT TECHNIQUE

 

 

On this post, you'll find more fun with furniture while decorating our beach cottage.  I got this chair along with two others just like it off of Craig's List.  I got all three for $40!  woo-hoo!  They were originally going to be a part of an eclectic mix of chairs for a dining room table, but I soon realized finding eight chairs of similar height, in styles that would work together, and could also be easily re-upholstered was harder than I expected.  The back up plan was to use a couple of these chairs in bedrooms as extra seating.

Before

First things first - sanding, sanding and more sanding.  My orbital sander got a lot of the work done with 80 grit sandpaper. 

 

The sander had it's limitations and the dark stain remained in the nooks and crannies.  Out came the Dremel and I made use of these three tools to get the rest of the stain off.

 

With the stain off, I probably should have gone back over the chairs with 120 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface before painting.  However, at that point I was done with the idea of sanding.  The surface felt a little rough but I convinced myself it added to the character.

 

When I started I didn't have a plan, but I knew I wanted to get a finish that resembled drift wood.  I bought a small can of driftwood stain, but it wasn't what I expected when I tested it out. (It was much more brown with a little bit of a milky look to it, and seemed like it would take a lot of coats to get the effect I wanted.).   Ultimately, I came up with this plan for my driftwood effect.

• First coat of paint - A light coat of Sherwin William's #7030 Anew Gray.  This is a nice taupey gray.

• Second coat of paint - Just a light dry brushing of Sherwin William's #7028 Incredible White.  I like that this gave the finish some depth, without being too bright white.

• Final step of sanding - This step was key to the final effect.  I sanded the edges and some other select areas to expose some of the warm wood color underneath.  This tied in nicely with the seat that I reupholstered in a natural color linen fabric.

 

 

One of the chairs found a home in the master bedroom...

 

I did the same finish on the frame for the photograph over the bed...

 

 

The other chair sits in the yellow bedroom...

 

 

Pretty big change from the dark espresso brown stain and the microfiber seat, huh?  Not bad for chairs that only cost us less than $15 a piece!

 

For more beach cottage posts see my Beach Cottage page.